Additional information
by Ruth Rendell (Author)
The faded and aging Harriet Oxenholme searches the newspaper for workmen who can come to her house to fill the hours left by a loveless marriage. Teddy Brex seems perfect, but he is less interested in Harriet than in what he can pilfer from her home. His lustful eye locks on a fairy-princess-like teenager who possesses a secret so devastating it could consume everyone around her.
Front Jacket
Teddy was born in squalor. Now he is a craftsman determined to banish ugliness from his life. Harriet is a beautiful, bored trophy wife who employs a series of repairmen for her sexual satisfaction. And Francine is a college student who witnessed her mother's murder and now must free herself from her father's manipulative second wife. Connected by strands of chance, their lives intersecting in the strangest of ways, these three people are on a journey that will bring them to each other--and to a beautiful ivy-covered home with at least one dead body in the basement....
Back Jacket
Teddy was born in squalor. Now he is a craftsman determined to banish ugliness from his life. Harriet is a beautiful, bored trophy wife who employs a series of repairmen for her sexual satisfaction. And Francine is a college student who witnessed her mother's murder and now must free herself from her father's manipulative second wife. Connected by strands of chance, their lives intersecting in the strangest of ways, these three people are on a journey that will bring them to each other -- and to a beautiful ivy-covered home with at least one dead body in the basement....
Author Biography
Ruth Rendell's many writing awards include three Edgars and the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America as well as four Golden Daggers from England's Crime Writers Association. She is also the author of Harm Done, Road Rage, The Keys to the Street, Simisola, The Crocodile Bird, and many more acclaimed novels.
She lives in England. In 1997 she was named a life peer in the House of Lords.
